370 
SOUTH SEA 
few minutes a wide and beautiful plain would open itself, 
enriched with various tints of verdure, from the “ sear 
and yellow leaf,” to the bright green of emerald. The 
clear ocean exposed its submarine beauties of shells and 
many-coloured corallines, while a small island, which 
sprung up midway in our passage, appeared nothing but 
a combination of terrestrial beauties : the leafv inter- 
* 
woven arbour— the tangled dell — the over-hanging cliff 
—the rocky glen— the chequered plain— all appeared to 
vie in offering to the lover and observer of nature their 
choisest forms, illuminated by the vivid light of a tro- 
pical sun. 
After having passed through the leeward opening in 
the reef, we crowded all sail for the remarkable island of 
Bolabola, which appears in the direction from which we 
saw it similar in form to the head of a huge sperm whale, 
projecting at an angle of forty-five degrees from the 
water : its centre is formed of an oblong square, standing 
on its end, in an oblique direction, at the angle I have 
mentioned, and appears like the tower of Pisa, in the act 
of falling. 
Before sunset we had anchored in its small harbour, 
when on proceeding to the shore soon afterwards, I ac- 
companied the captain to the king’s house, where we 
were quickly surrounded by a number of men, many of 
whom were chiefs. We were greatly surprised at their 
enormous size, for not only were they of great bulk, but 
many of them where, at least, six feet four or six inches 
in height. Most of these giants were intoxicated, and 
they entered the king’s house with the utmost freedom, 
